Card-table



(No Model.)

A. RODGERS.

CARD TABLE.

No. 327,722. Patented Oct. 6, 1885.

illllil a i ////A liNrTn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER RODGERS, OF MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN.

CARD-TABLE.

iBPECIl-ICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 327,722, dated October 6, 1885.

Application filed May 15, 1885. Serial No. 165,585,

T0 at whont it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER RODGERS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Muskegon, in the county of Muskegon and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Card-Tables, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to an improvement in card-tables, being especially designed to take the place of those now in use upon railwaycars, although it may be provided with suitable legs and used in other places. \Vith the tables in ordinary use great difficulty is expe rienced in picking up the cards, as they lay so close to the fiat surface of the table that it is difficult to get the fingers under the edge to pick them up, and if the finger-nails are used for that purpose it injures the cards, it being generally necessary to pull them to the edge of the table with one hand, and then grasp them with the other. In doing this a part of them are liable to be thrown on the floor, an accident which also frequently happens in dealing. To obviate these difficulties I form my table with a sunken groove or channel around the edges of less width than an ordinary playing-card, so that it will be impossible for a card to fall in andlie flat on the bottom of the channel; consequently, it is always raised from said bottom sufficiently to allow it to be readily grasped by the fingers when projecting over or partly lying in the channel; and, further, the ledge which forms the outer wall of the channel forms an excellent guard against the chance of cards being thrown upon the floor in dealing, or at other times, as when being picked up or jostled by the movement of the car; and, as a still further improvement, the surface of the table may be corrugated or grooved. with semicircular grooves in two directions, so as to convert its surface inside the channels into a series of prominenees separated by depressions of sufficient depth to allow the cards resting upon the prominences to be readily picked up.

The invention therefore consists in providing the top of a card-table with a circumferential groove or channel, and its surface with a number of grooves, which convert it (No model.)

into a series of prominences or depressions, as will be hereinafter fully explained.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows the table as attached to the side of a car between the seats and provided with the circumferential groove or channel. Fig. 2 shows a table-top with the circumferential groove, and also a series of parallel grooves, giving it a fluted surface. Fig. 3 is a View of the same, with an additional set of grooves in its surface, converting the same into a series of separate prominences. Fig. 4 is a transverse section on the plane-surfaced table shown in Fig. 1; and Fig. 5 is a similar section of the corrugated or fluted surface, as seen in Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is a plan view of the table, as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 7 is a cross-section of Fig. 3.

In constructing this table I prefer to take a board of the proper size, and then by suitable mechanism form a rabbet around it of a breadth, say, of one and a half to two inches, and from one-fourth to half an inch in depth. This rabbet forms the channel a, the outer wall or ledge, I), being made from a separate piece or molding secured to the body of the table, as shown in Fig. 4. As thus constructed, the channel a, surrounding the table, enables the cards to be readily picked up when brought over its inner edge, and the ledge b prevents them from being thrown upon the floor in dealing or falling from the table accidentally. The table is provided with a series of parallel grooves, c a, formed in its surface, which enables the player to insert his fingertips beneath the card and readily pick it up from any point. These parallel grooves c 0 may, if desired, be made in two sets placed at an angle so as to cross, thus forming a table-top similar to that shown in Fig. 3.

It will be evident that this system of construction may be applied to circular and oval, as well as rectangular tables, and that instead of forming the ledge 11 from a separate piece, the channel may be cut from the solid, leaving the ledge standing.

I am aware that game-tables have been constructed which were provided with an encircling-ledge, or ledge and groove, for the purpose of retaining the implements of the game upon the table; and, further, that a game IOC - table has been devised, as shown in Patent 2. In card-tables, a table-top having two No. 118,249, which has an encircling-groove series of parallel grooves or flutings, c 0, cross and a series of hemispherical depressions to ing each other at an angle, and an edge chan- I5 receive the balls with which the game is played. nel, a, substantially as and for the purpose set 5 These devices I do not therefore claim. forth.

Having thus described my invention, I claim In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my sigas new and desire to secure by Letters Patnature in presence of two witnesses. the followlng ALEXANDER RODGERS.

1. In card-tables, a table-top provided wlth 10 the encircling-channel a and a series of paral- Witnesses:

lel grooves, c c, as and for the purpose speci- JAs. O. MOLAUGHLIN, fied. ALFRED WELLENBUCHER. 

